Little Marco lives to lie another day

He’s back.

After months away from the presidential campaign trail, tonight Marco Rubio returns to the spotlight. Rubio will address the Republican National Convention in Cleveland via video. In case you forgot, Rubio (like The Donald) has lied about nearly everything from Hillary Clinton’s stance on choice to his own family history. Most egregiously, during the Republican presidential campaign (which he lost), Rubio insisted that Clinton “put classified information on her computer because she thinks she’s above the law.” That lie has been completely obliterated not only by The Washington Post’s Factchecker but by FBI Director James Comey.

Here’s a quick refresher on Rubio’s record of lies:

MARCO RUBIO LIED ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON’S STANCE ON CHOICE

Marco Rubio: Hillary Clinton “believes that all abortion should be legal, even on the due date of that unborn child.”

• PolitiFact gave Marco Rubio’s claim that Hillary Clinton “believes that all abortion should be legal, even on the due date of that unborn child” a rating of “False.”

  Rubio said Clinton ‘believes that all abortion should be legal, even on the due date of that unborn child.’ Clinton does not believe that all abortion should be legal. Instead, she’s said she supports restrictions on late-term abortions except in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life and health are in danger. That’s not the same thing as unequivocally supporting abortions ‘even on the due date’ of the child. Such an abortion would be a purely hypothetical scenario; doctors said such a procedure doesn’t make sense medically. We rate Rubio’s claim False.

• PolitiFact: “Rubio’s conclusion that Clinton supports due-date abortions is not backed by evidence and logically unsound.”

  We should note that those who want a total abortion ban — a position that Rubio has expressed — see exceptions made for rape, incest and health as loopholes that undermine late-term restrictions. Advocating for exceptions could theoretically encompass a due-date abortion, but Rubio’s conclusion that Clinton supports due-date abortions is not backed by evidence and logically unsound.

• PolitiFact: “Clinton is open to restrictions on late-term abortions provided there are exceptions for the life and health of the mother.”

  In short, Clinton is open to restrictions on late-term abortions provided there are exceptions for the life and health of the mother. This includes both mental health and medical complications like preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication of high blood pressure that could lead to death.

MARCO RUBIO LIED ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON’S HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

Marco Rubio: Hillary Clinton “put classified information on her computer because she thinks she’s above the law.”

• The Washington Post Fact Checker said there was “no evidence to show that” Hillary Clinton purposefully “put classified on information on her computer.”

  ‘She [Hillary Clinton] put classified information on her computer because she thinks she’s above the law.’ –Rubio Rubio’s phrasing suggests that Clinton purposely put classified information on her emails. There has been no evidence to show that is the case.

• FBI Director Comey: There was not evidence to show “that she knew she was receiving classified information.”

  I do not believe there’s evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew she was receiving classified information in violation of the requirements… She did in fact — there is, in my view, not evidence beyond certainly probable cause. There’s not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew she was receiving classified information or that she intended to retain it on her server.

• FBI Director Comey said there was not evidence to show that “she knew she was sending classified information” or that she was doing so with intent.

  But on Thursday, his careful explanation that the FBI ‘did not find evidence sufficient to establish that she knew she was sending classified information beyond a reasonable doubt to meet the intent standard’ brought them a measure of relief.

• FBI Director Comey testified that three documents in question were not properly marked if they were meant to indicate classified information.

  Second, Director Comey testified that the classification markings on these three documents were not proper and did not comply with federal guidelines or manuals. The emails did not have classified headers, and they did not identify the original classifier, agency, office of origin, reason for classification, or date for declassification. Instead, they had only a ‘c’ for ‘confidential’ next to a paragraph further down in the email. Third, Director Comey testified that, based on these facts, it would be a ‘reasonable inference’ fore Secretary Clinton to have ‘immediately’ concluded that these documents were not classified.

• FBI Director Comey testified that the improperly marked emails could be reasonably judged as not classified.

  MATT CARTWRIGHT: If Secretary Clinton were an expert about what’s classified and not classified and we’re following the manual, the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified. Am I correct in that? COMEY: That would be a reasonable inference.

MARCO RUBIO LIED ABOUT QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS PERSONAL AND POLITICAL FINANCES BEING “DISCREDITED”

Marco Rubio said that claims that he was negligent in his personal and political finances were “discredited attacks from Democrats and my political opponents.”

• Marco Rubio failed to disclose a $135,000 home equity loan he obtained from a bank controlled by his political supporters.

  State House Speaker Marco Rubio abruptly amended his financial disclosure forms Friday after The Miami Herald asked why they lacked a $135,000 home equity loan he obtained from a bank controlled by his political supporters.

• Marco Rubio double billed the Republican Party of Florida and taxpayers as Florida House Speaker.

  One day after the Herald/Times received travel records from the state, U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio’s campaign is admitting that he double billed the Republican Party of Florida and state taxpayers for eight flights while he was House Speaker. ‘Earlier this week in response to a question from the media I stated that all my legislative travel during my tenure as Speaker was paid for by the Republican Party of Florida. However after reviewing hundreds of flights we identified 8 official state business flights which the state properly paid for. These flights total approximately $3,000. Further, it appears several of these flights were also billed to the RPOF.’

• Marco Rubio charged personal expenses including car repairs, grocery bills, plane tickets, wine, Apple products, and meals to his Florida Republican Party credit card.

  Rubio billed the party for more than $100,000 during the two years he served as the state’s House speaker, according to credit card statements obtained by the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times. The charges included repairs to his family’s minivan, grocery bills, plane tickets for his wife, and purchases from retailers including a wine store near his home and Apple’s online store. Rubio also charged the party for dozens of meals during the annual lawmaking session in Tallahassee, even though he received taxpayer subsidies for his meals. Rubio said that the billings all related to party business — the minivan, for example, was damaged by a valet at a political function and that he repaid the party about $16,000 in personal expenses.

• Marco Rubio: “When I received my statement, I would spend hours trying to figure out which [credit card expenditures] were political, and which were personal.”

  I often used my or Jeanette’s personal credit cards to pay for many of the campaign’s expenditures. When I received my statement, I would spend hours trying to figure out which were political, and which were personal.

• Marco Rubio’s Republican Party credit account incurred more than $1,700 in delinquency and late fees over a four-year period while he was in the Florida legislature.

  The records, which cover a 22-month period in 2005 and 2006, combined with previously disclosed credit card statements, show that Rubio charged more than $22,000 in personal expenses to the card while the account incurred more than $1,700 in delinquency and late fees over a four-year period while he was in the Florida legislature.

• Florida State Ethics Commission: “The level of negligence exhibited by [Marco Rubio]…is disturbing.”

  In 2012, the Florida state ethics commission dismissed a complaint against him for the spending, though an inspector analyzing the claims noted that Rubio was not without some fault. ‘The level of negligence exhibited by Respondent’s confusion between the (Republican Party of Florida) American Express card and his personal MasterCard, together with his failure to recognize the error when reviewing the months’ statements, and his signature on the reimbursement requests, is disturbing,’ the ethics commission advocate wrote.

• Marco Rubio faced foreclosure after missing five months of mortgage payments on a home he owned.

  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio is facing foreclosure on a Tallahassee house after missing five months of mortgage payments, according to a lawsuit filed in Leon County Circuit Court. But Rubio’s campaign spokesman said Rubio and David Rivera, a U.S. House candidate from Miami who co-owns the home with Rubio, have paid $9,200 owed to Deutsche Bank and the foreclosure has been withdrawn.

• Marco Rubio likely faced tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for cashing out his retirement account early.

  If it was traditional, he would have essentially forfeited more than a third of his withdrawal. […] Rubio’s taxable income probably put him in either the 28% or 33% federal income tax bracket. Let’s assume he’s in the 33% bracket. That means he probably had to pony up roughly $30,000 in taxes and penalties on his IRA cash-out. That means he would have netted only $38,000 from the original $68,000.

MARCO RUBIO LIED ABOUT HIS PARENTS FLEEING FIDEL CASTRO

Marco Rubio repeatedly claimed that his parents fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba in 1959.

• Marco Rubio’s parents left Cuba and were admitted to the United States as permanent residents more than two years before Fidel Castro came to power.

  During his rise to political prominence, Sen. Marco Rubio frequently repeated a compelling version of his family’s history that had special resonance in South Florida. He was the ‘son of exiles,’ he told audiences, Cuban Americans forced off their beloved island after ‘a thug,’ Fidel Castro, took power. But a review of documents — including naturalization papers and other official records — reveals that the Florida Republican’s account embellishes the facts. The documents show that Rubio’s parents came to the United States and were admitted for permanent residence more than two-and-a-half years before Castro’s forces overthrew the Cuban government and took power on New Year’s Day 1959.

• PolitiFact rated Marco Rubio’s claim that his parents “came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover” as “False.”

  Even after he stumbled over dates with a Miami Herald reporter and acknowledged his parents left before the revolution, his official Web bio stayed the same. After two news organizations reported his parents moved to the United States in 1956, his spokesman acknowledged that the bio was wrong. It was updated to say, ‘Marco was born in Miami in 1971 to Cuban exiles who first arrived in the United States in 1956.’ That puts everyone in agreement: The original statement is False.

MARCO RUBIO LIED ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Marco Rubio: “We are worse off today than we were five years ago. We have more illegal immigrants here.”

• PolitiFact: “There is no evidence to support the idea that the illegal immigrant population has grown in the past five years.”

  Rubio said, ‘We have more illegal immigrants here’ than we did five years ago. Multiple estimates show that the illegal immigrant population has stabilized, or even decreased, from its peak in 2007 through 2014, the latest available data. According to Pew, the illegal immigrant population was 11.3 million in 2014, down from 11.4 million five years prior in 2010. This is in sharp contrast to dramatic and steady increases throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. There is no evidence to support the idea that the illegal immigrant population has grown in the past five years. We rate Rubio’s claim False.